UC-NRLF 


harles  Evans  Hughes 
The  Man 


Side-Lights  Upon   the  Personality 

of  the  Former  Governor 

of  New  York 


By  John  Palmer  Gavit 


Reprinted    from 


June  10th,  1916 

Ten  Cents  Per   Copy 
(Special  Rates  in  Quantities) 


New  York 

The  Nation  Press,  Inc. 

20  Vesey  Street 

1916 


Charles  Evans  Hughes 
The  Man 


Side-Lights  Upon  the  Personality 

of  the  Former  Governor 

of  New  York 


By  John  Palmer  Gavit 


Reprinted   from 

Sflje  $efcr  jtorfi  pbjeninij  Itarf 

June  10th,  1916 

Ten  Cents  Per  Copy 
(Special  Rates  in  Quantities) 


New  York 

The  Nation  Press,  Inc. 

20  Vesey  Street 

1916 


H' 


^ 


Copyright  1916  by  The  New  York  Evening  Post  Co. 


Printed    by 

The  Nation  Press,   Inc. 

20  Vesey  Street, 

New  York 


IT  HAPPhNS  to  have  been  my  privilege  —  I  count 
it  one  of  the  assets  of  my  life  —  to  see  a  good  deal 

of  Charles  Evans  Hughes  during  the  four  years  of 
his  service  at  Albany  as  Governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York;  to  see  him  not  only  daily  in  official  action 
at  the  Executive  Chamber,  but  in  his  own  home;  to 
travel  with  him  many  hundreds  of  miles;  to  talk  with 
him  on  subjects  of  many  kinds;  to  swap  stories  with 
him  —  in  short,  to  know  the  man  behind  the  official. 

The  net  impression  that  remains  with  me  out  of  the 
memories  of  those  stirring  days  is  that  of  the  most 
straightforward,  intellectually  honest,  transparently 
sincere  person  I  ever  have  known  ;  at  the  same  time  one 
of  the  most  companionable,  most  human  men  it  has 
been  my  fortune  to  meet. 

In  a  word,  I  think  of  Hughes,  not  as  the  ruthless 
investigator  of  gas  and  life-insurance  abuses;  not  as 
the  originator  of  the  Public  Service  Commissions  in 
New  York;  not  as  the  defender  of  the  Constitution  in 
the  matter  of  public  gambling  at  race-tracks  ;  not  as  the 
fighter  for  direct  nominations;  but  as  a  man  — 
phenomenally  clear-headed,  single-minded,  and  incon 
ceivably  industrious,  absolutely  fearless,  to  be  sure; 
but  humanly  approachable  and  friendly,  good  natured, 
reasonable,  jovial  —  and  on  the  level  with  his  job. 


night  we  came  down  from  the  western  part  of 
the  State,  after  a  tour  of  the  county  fairs  — 
during  the  memorable  fight  over  the  anti-gambling 
legislation  it  was.  Through  some  failure  of  arrange 
ments  no  reservation  had  been  made  on  the  east-bound 
sleeper.  There  were  three  of  us:  the  Governor, 
Colonel  Treadwell,  his  military  secretary,  and  myself. 
There  was  but  one  berth. 

No  argument  would  induce  the  Governor  to  take 
that  berth.  Yes,  he  was  the  Governor;  his  rest  was 
of  public  importance  and  all  that  —  he  knew,  but  it 
made  no  difference;  we  were  travelling  together,  and 
we  must  share  the  inconveniences.  So  we  rode  to 
gether  in  the  smoking-car  practically  all  night. 

339432 


A  smoking-car  at  night  is  not  the.  most  comfortable 
of  places;  this  one  happened  to  be  full  of  laborers 
and  redolent  with  many  odors.  The  Governor's  silk 
hat,  on  and  off  in  the  effort  for  physical  comfort,  came 
to  look  like  a  fur  muff;  but  he  was  oblivious  of  that. 
We  had  a  jolly  time.  The  Governor  is  a  capital 
story-teller,  and  his  laugh — you  can  hear  it  a  good 
distance — must  have  disturbed  more  than  one  sleeper 
in  the  crowded  car. 

COME  of  the  stories  he  told  that  night  were  of  his 
^  own  experiences.  One  was  of  a  time,  early  in  his 
law  practice,  when  Hughes  went  to  the  Far  West  as 
representative  of  a  syndicate  of  bondholders  which 
had  undertaken  to  rescue  a  railroad  in  one  of  the 
Pacific  Coast  States  from  a  chaos  of  insolvency.  The 
measures  proposed  as  a  result  of  his  report  were  mis 
construed  by  the  people  of  the  locality  most  interested, 
and  when  Hughes  went  before  the  court  where  an 
aspect  of  the  case  was  to  be  passed  upon,  an  angry 
crowd  of  railroad  men  filled  the  courtroom  and  hissed 
him  to  the  echo.  Fearlessly  he  faced  them,  fearlessly 
he  said  his  say,  and  when  he  finished  he  had  the  crowd 
with  him. 

On  his  way  home  by  night  in  the  midst  of  the  ex 
citement,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  stop  at  a  junction 
hotel  to  wait  several  hours  for  his  train.  The  hotel 
proprietor  came  to  his  room  privately  with  the  ominous 
news  that  the  bar-room  below  was  filled  with  cursing 
railroad  men  promising  to  do  him  harm. 

"Come  quietly  out  this  way,"  said  the  hotel  man, 
"and  I  will  have  you  driven  over  to  the  neighboring 
town.  I  have  a  rig  waiting  at  the  back.  These  men 
need  not  know  that  you  have  been  here." 

"Where  is  this  bar-room?"  demanded  Hughes. 

He  made  the  protesting  landlord  take  him  down 
there,  walked  into  the  midst  of  the  ugly  crowd,  and — 

"Good  evening,  gentlemen!  Will  you  join  me? 
What  will  you  have?" 


And  there  he  stayed,  till  train-time,  talking  things 
over,  man  to  man. 

He  told  us  that  night  of  other  experiences  of  a  more 
intimate  character,  which  I  may  not  repeat  here;  then, 
with  a  shout  of  laughter,  clapped  his  hand  down  on 
my  knee  with  a  resounding  slap,  and  cried : 

"And  yet  there  are  people  who  think  I  was  born 
day-bef  ore-yesterday ! " 

THE  party  of  Civil  War  veterans — most  of 
them  generals — and  State  officers,  that  went  to 
Gettysburg  to  dedicate  the  Greene  monument  on 
Gulp's  Hill,  riding  in  the  private  car  with  Governor 
Hughes,  several  are  dead  now — among  them  General 
Fred  Grant,  General  Alex  Webb,  General  Sickles, 
Senator  Raines.  The  rest  of  us  will  long  remember 
an  episode  on  the  evening  of  our  arrival  in  Gettysburg, 
when  the  special  train  lay  in  the  railroad  yards,  sur 
rounded  by  a  curious  crowd  of  townspeople. 

As  we  sat  about  the  table  after  dinner,  Governor 
Hughes  told  us  of  the  thrilling  and  wholly  unauthor 
ized  ascent  of  the  spire  of  Strassburg  Cathedral  by 
his  son,  Charles,  Jr.,  then  somewhere  about  eleven 
years  old. 

The  car  was  brilliantly  lighted,  and  the  shades 
were  up.  It  was  dark  outside.  So  intent  was  the 
Governor  upon  his  story,  so  thrilled  with  the  memory 
of  that  hair-raising  climb,  that  he  rose  from  the  table 
and  fairly  danced  about,  gesturing  excitedly  as  he 
told  how  "young  Charley"  had  gone  up  ahead  of 
him  and  was  lost  to  sight;  how  the  steps  narrowed, 
with  the  chance  of  a  plunge  either  inside  or  outside 
to  the  ground  600  feet  below. 

The  multitude  of  gaping  citizens  of  Gettysburg 
standing  in  the  dark  outside  the  car  watched  in  amaze 
ment.  They  could  not  hear  a  sound.  And  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  State  of  New  York  continued  his 
antics,  his  hands  clutching  and  circling  above  his  head, 
as  he  told  this  group  of  listeners  how  he  found  the 


youngster  clinging,  monkey-fashion,  to  the  fragile 
stonework  outside  the  pinnacle  of  the  spire. 

Then  some  one  called  the  Governor's  attention  to 
the  hitherto  unnoticed  throng  outside.  For  a  moment 
he  was  disconcerted,  as  he  thought  of  the  contortions 
with  which  he  had  illustrated  his  narrative,  and  how 
it  must  have  looked  to  those  who  could  see  but  could 
not  hear  a  word.  Then  he  joined  in  the  shout  of 
laughter,  and  said: 

"That  comes  of  drinking  three  cups  of  tea  at  din 
ner.  I  shall  never  again  be  able  to  tell  that  story 
without  chills  of  the  spine." 


of  the  guides  of  Gettysburg  —  a  man  perhaps 
thirty-five  years  old  —  stood  under  the  trees  at  the 
"Bloody  Angle"  where  Pickett's  charge  was  stopped, 
and  told  the  story  of  the  place  —  told  it  to  Webb,  who 
was  wounded  on  that  very  spot,  and  to  Sickles  and 
McCook.  After  he  had  finished,  Governor  Hughes 
made  a  little  speech,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said: 

"I  know  that  many  brave  things  were  done  on  this 
field;  but  I  think  nothing  ever  done  here  equalled  in 
cold  nerve  the  act  of  this  young  man  who  has  stood 
here  to-day,  describing  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  to 
those  old  fellows  who  were  in  it!" 

IT  WOULD  reguire  more  space  than  is  now  at  com 
mand  to  tell  adequately  of  the  visit  of  Governor 

Hughes,   with  his  glittering  staff  in   full   uniform,   to 

Fortress   Monroe,    on    a   day   during   the   Jamestown 

Exposition. 

In  full  panoply  the  score    of    valiant    officers,    in 

column  of  twos,   marched  in   at   one   of  the  postern 

gates  and  were  chased  out  by  a  sentry  in  the  corridor  ; 

they  marched  out  again  and  round  by  the  main  gate. 

There  an  armed  guard,  commanding  a  squad  of  pris 

oners  cleaning  the  road,  pointed  them  toward  the  post 

office.     There  was  nobody  at  the  office. 

Nobody  met   them,   nobody  paid  any  attention   to 


them.  They  might  have  been  Knights  of  Pythias,  or 
visiting  firemen  from  Painted  Post.  As  they  passed 
the  parade-ground  a  football  came  within  four  inches 
of  the  Governor's  head  and  landed  bang  on  the  solar 
plexus  of  the  Adjutant-General  of  New  York. 

It  was  full  twenty  minutes  before  the  post  woke 
up  ,to  the  fact  that  this  was  a  visit  of  ceremony,  a 
distinguished  military  occasion.  There  was  panic  in 
the  fort.  Such  amends  as  were  possible  were  hastily 
improvised.  But  from  the  point  of  view  of  military 
etiquette  the  thing  was  unpardonable.  And  General 
Grant,  commanding  the  Department  of  the  East,  at 
whose  personal  invitation,  as  they  supposed,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  military  and  naval  forces  of 
the  State  of  New  York  and  his  staff  were  paying  a 
visit  of  ceremony  to  the  fort,  was  napping  in  his 
dressing-gown  at  the  Hotel  Chamberlain! 

COURSE  it  was  all  a  misunderstanding;  but 
if  Washington  ever  had  heard  of  it  there  would 
have  been  lively  times  for  General  Grant  and  the 
officers  at  the  fort.  I  never  saw  a  madder  lot  of  men 
than  the  members  of  the  Governor's  staff.  They  were 
for  doing  dire  things  to  avenge  the  "insult"  to  the 
dignity  of  the  Empire  State  and  its  Chief  Magistrate. 

The  Chief  Magistrate  himself  was  holding  his  sides 
when  the  two  newspaper  men,  eye-witnesses  of  all 
this,  came  to  his  room  in  answer  to  his  summons. 

"Boys,"  he  said,  "couldn't  you  manage  to  forget 
what  you  saw  this  afternoon?  General  Grant  did  not 
understand  that  we  were  going  to  the  fort  to-day.  I 
wouldn't  have  him  embarrassed  about  this  for  any 
thing  in  the  world.  I  know  it  is  the  funniest  thing 
one  could  imagine,  and  a  peach  of  a  newspaper  story, 
but  I  would  be  immensely  obliged  if  you'd  simply 
forget  it." 

Only  two  newspaper  men  knew  the  story.  We 
looked  at  each  other,  nodded,  joined  in  the  Gov 
ernor's  laughter,  and  proceeded  to  "forget  it."  It  will 
do  no  harm  to  tell  it  now. 


LJ  UGHES  has  always  deprecated  the  story  that 
^  *  he  was  an  infant  prodigy.  His  parents  did  not 
encourage  precocity. 

"I  was  an  omnivorous  reader,"  he  told  me  once, 
"and  interested  in  everything  that  came  along;  my 
mind  was  clear  and  active,  but  it  is  not  true  that  I 
found  my  recreation  in  Greek  and  Latin  roots,  or 
amused  my  childish  hours  with  exercises  in  differential 
calculus! 

"I  did  read  practically  all  of  Shakespeare's  plays 
before  I  was  eight  years  old;  but  I  read  them  for 
the  s/onj." 

It  was  said  at  Brown  University  that  nobody  in 
college  had  read  anything  like  so  much  general  litera 
ture  and  drama  as  young  Hughes.  It  is  to  be  said, 
however,  that  he  never  acquired  the  taste  for  literary 
drivel.  But  during  the  winter  of  1907-8,  while  he 
was  in  one  of  his  hardest  fights  with  the  Legislature 
over  some  of  the  problems,  the  solution  of  which 
marked  his  administration,  he  read  six  of  the  swash 
buckling  novels  of  Dumas. 

L_J  E  NEVER  has  understood,  as  workaday  poli- 
*  ticians  understand,  the  ins-and-outs  of  local  poli 
tics.  A  good  part  of  his  troubles  with  the  Republi 
can  organization  were  due  to  this  fact,  and  to  the 
further  fact  that  he  came  into  political  life  without 
personal  acquaintance  with  politicians,  or  even  with 
the  legitimate  political  customs  of  the  day.  But  he 
realized  his  limitations  in  this  regard,  and  never  tried 
to  learn  the  game  of  petty  politics. 

One  of  the  shrewdest  of  the  political  writers  who 
twice  a  day  faced  him  in  the  Executive  Chamber  for 
the  newspapers  asked  him  once  a  searching  question, 
founded  upon  the  reasoning  of  those  to  whom  politics 
is  grist  for  the  daily  mill.  The  Governor  looked  at 
him  grimly,  inscrutably,  and  said: 

"I  have  nothing  to  say  for  publication  about  that 
matter  at  present." 


Then  his  lips  began  to  twitch  and  his  eyes  to 
twinkle  as  he  added: 

"But  for  your  own  information,  and  so  that  you 
may  not  go  astray  about  it,  I  will  say  that  —  I  haven't 
the  remotest  idea  what  you  are  talking  about!"  And 
not  a  man  in  the  group  had  the  slightest  doubt  that 
what  he  said  was  true. 

Time  and  again  Hughes  invaded  the  domain  of 
some  local  leader,  to  make  a  speech  at  a  fair,  to  visit 
a  State  institution,  or  what  not;  was  his  guest;  was 
introduced  by  him  to  his  constituents  —  and  afterward 
exhibited  undisguised  astonishment,  and  full  apprecia 
tion  of  the  joke,  when  the  newspaper  men  told  him 
he  had  been  sitting  at  the  very  fireside  of  a  man  who 
would  cheerfully  cut  his  political  throat. 


he  appointed  the  late  Frederick  C.  Stevens, 
who  had  been  chairman  of  the  Gas  Investigat 
ing  Committee,  to  be  Superintendent  of  Public  Works, 
the  political  firmament  shook  to  its  foundations.  The 
Wadsworths,  father  and  son,  feudal  lords  of  North 
west  New  York  since  time  out  of  mind,  only  the  year 
before  had  legislated  Stevens  "off  the  map"  by  an 
act  reapportioning  the  legislative  districts  of  the  Stale* 
at  great  expense  of  political  manoeuvring;  had  put 
him  "out  of  business"  beyond  rescue  by  anything  but 
a  political  miracle.  Hughes,  thinking  only  of  his 
own  confidence  in  the  character  and  efficiency  of 
Stevens,  reached  into  the  political  morgue,  so  to  speak, 
and  rehabilitated  him  by  appointment  to  the  most  im 
portant  and  powerful  office  within  his  gift. 

The  Governor  was  amazed,  perhaps  a  trifle  dis 
concerted,  by  the  uproar  which  his  action  caused.  Trie 
single  instruction  that  he  gave  to  Mr.  Stevens,  as  the 
latter  quoted  it  to  me,  was  this: 

"I  want  you  to  conduct  this  office  with  an  eye  solely 
to  efficiency  and  the  public  interest.  The  one  thing 
you  must  not  do  is  to  try  by  the  use  of  patronage  to 
build  any  'Hughes  machine.'  ' 


I  N  THE  first  days  of  his  term  it  chanced  that  he 
and  former  Governor  David  B.  Hill  rode  together 
in  a  train.  Those  who  heard  the  conversation  say 
that  it  was  "as  good  as  a  show"  to  hear  these  two 
discussing  sundry  acts  and  policies — this  newcomer  in 
the  field  and  that  battle-scarred  veteran  who  had 
"been  there"  before  him.  Whole  eras  of  party  poli 
tics  and  dearly-bought  experience  were  condensed  in 
Hill's  courteous  but  candid  advice  to  the  new 
Governor. 

"I  wouldn't  do  that,"  the  eager  hearers  heard  him 
say  at  one  point.  "I  tried  that,  and  you'll  find  it 
won't  do."  And  at  another:  "Before  you  try  to 
draft  a  ballot  law,  get  the  advice  of  the  fellows  who 
have  worked  at  the  polls." 

I  NEVER  shall  forget  the  man's  white,  drawn  face 
that  day  when  he  told  us  he  could  not  interfere  in 
the  case  of  a  boy  condemned  to  die  for  murder.  It 
was  the  first  time  the  life  of  a  human  being  had  hung 
absolutely  upon  his  personal  decision.  I  know  now 
that  in  that  case,  as  in  many  a  case  afterward,  he 
had  fine-combed  the  record  for  some  reason  within 
the  scooe  of  his  lawful  powers,  as  he  construed  the 
law,  which  would  justify  him  in  saving  that  boy's 
life. 

"THE  man  is  a  glutton  for  work.  Some  idea  of  his 
A  unbelievable  appetite  for  hard  personal  labor  may 
be  gained  from  the  fact  that  he  taught  under  a  fellow 
ship  from  the  Law  School,  had  a  private  class  besides, 
and  during  the  days  worked  like  a  horse  in  the  law 
office.  Somewhere  there  is  a  diploma  certifying  that 
he  crowded  into  these  busy  months  a  course  in  stenog 
raphy,  and  acquired  a  speed  of  150  words  a  minute. 

JVflANY  things,  true  and  untrue,   friendly  and  un- 

•*•    friendly,  have  been  said  about  Hughes  since  he 

became    a   public    figure.      With    equanimity    he    has 

10 


borne  alike  praise  and  blame.  Bat  one  thing  tha,t  !ie 
knows  is  commonly  thought  and  said  of  him  cuts  him  to 
the  quick.  He  does  not  understand  it,  and  never  has 
got  used  to  it.  That  is,  that  he  is  a  "human  icicle" 
— a  thinking  machine;  an  austere  person,  slave  of 
conviction  and  the  letter  of  the  law;  an  animated 
Puritan  conscience,  without  sympathy  or  passions. 


HUGHES  AS  A  REPORTER 

OF  NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS 


A  Secret   Life  Ambition   Laid   Bare   By   the   Offer 
of  a  Job. 

[Reprinted  from  The  Eocning  Post,  June  12,  1916.] 

A  ND  yet,  Charles  E.  Hughes  need  not  have  re- 
•**•  mained  in  judicial  seclusion  at  Washington  dur 
ing  the  Republican  National  Convention.  He  had  an 
opportunity — but  the  following  genuine  correspond 
ence  published  here  with  his  consent,  speaks  for  itself: 

May   18th,    1916. 
Hon.   Charles  E.   Hughes, 

2100  Sixteenth   Street, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Dear  Governor  Hughes: 

I  observe  in  the  Publick  Prints  that  one  William 
Jennings  Bryan,  sometime  Secretary  of  State  of  the 
United  States,  is  to  report  the  Republican  and  Demo 
cratic  National  Conventions  for  a  syndicate  of  news 
papers.  Would  you  accept  a  commission  to  report 
them  for  the  Evening  Post? 

This  proposal  involves  the  opportunity  for  you  to 
express  yourself  regarding  various  matters  and  persons 
with  a  candor  not  quite  practicable  in  your  judicial 
capacity;  also,  there  seems  a  remote  possibility  that 
at  one  or  both  of  these  Conventions  one  thing  or  an 
other  might  happen  of  interest  to  you. 


Notwithstanding  your  lack  of  actual  newspaper 
experience,  I  am  sure  your  reports  of  and  comments 
upon  these  gatherings  would  be  readable.  I  believe 
I  can  guarantee  you  a  position  on  the  first  page,  next 
pure  reading  matter;  we  might  even  be  able  to  syndi 
cate  your  dispatches  to  our  mutual  advantage. 

So  far  as  I  am  aware,  you  never  have  attended  a 
National  Convention.  Every  American  citizen  ought 
to  see  one  once.  This  is  a  grand  chance  for  you  to 
earn  your  travelling  expenses  both  ways,  and  possibly 
a  little  to  spare. 

Anticipating  with  anxious  interest  your  acceptance 
of  this  proposal,  and  with  kindest  personal  regards, 
I  am,  as  always, 

Cordially,  JOHN  P.  GAVIT, 

Managing  Editor. 


Washington,  D.  C,  May  19,  1916. 
Dear  Gavit: 

I  have  received  your  letter  of  May  eighteenth.  I 
cannot  tell  you  how  deeply  touched  I  am  by  your  kind 
offer.  At  last  my  secret  ambition  is  laid  bare.  For 
many  weary  years  I  have  longed  to  be  a  newspaper 
correspondent  and  say  a  few  things.  But  my  talent 
for  up-to-date,  virile,  philosophical,  prophetical,  cine- 
matographical  correspondence  has  been  unrecognized, 
and  one  exigency  after  another  has  compelled  me  to 
make  other  arrangements.  I  am  now  under  contract 
for  work,  relatively  unimportant,  which,  however,  will 
detain  me  here  during  the  time  the  Convention  is  held. 
I  put  aside  my  longing  to  see  a  Convention;  that  is 
very  great,  but  it  is  as  nothing  compared  to  my  wish 
to  write  one  up  and  to  show  the  best  of  newspapers 
how  it  may  be  improved. 

Faithfully, 

CHARLES  E.  HUGHES. 

12 


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OCT  141947 
OCT 


JUL  1  0 1954  LU 
SJMP59MI 
*"^'D  LD 

-6  i958 


LD  21-1007n-12,'46(A2012sl6)4120 


REC'D 

JML  12 


L.D 

«  62 


Gaylord,  I>ros. 

Makers 

Syracvise,  N.  Y 
PH,  JAM.  21, 1908 


- 


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